Koko Crater Rim

by kenji SAITO on January 1, 2011

After catching the cloudy sunrise at the beach that ushered in the New Year, I met up with the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club at the Halona Blowhole parking lot. Every New Year’s Day, the club hikes the back of Koko Crater. After being told the obligatory “hike at your own risk” speech and the most dangerous part of the hike is crossing the highway to dodge rushing cars, we started off with a group that numbered in the 40s.

The knob

After we crossed the road, we climbed up the connecting ridge that lead to the main slope of Koko Crater. The trail naturally lead to the pointy rock formation sticking up from the crater rim or more commonly known as “the knob.”

The arch

This is a natural stone arch that spanned a gully. An advance party had strung up some rope to help us get over the arch. It was a nice touch as club members were wishing everyone Happy New Year as they helped us scramble over the arch.

The rim

As soon as we hit the knob, we made a left and started for the summit. I personally thought that hiking up the back crater of the rim was much easier than going up the tram tracks.

Scenic view

Once everyone was gathered at the top, some of the club members had brought along non-alcoholic champagne to toast the New Year. Another nice touch.

Going down

Here we are headed down the tram tracks and running into a bottleneck, as hikers going up and down meet at the part where the tracks bridge a gully. Some hikers elected to take the more sure-footed trail to the left as seen in the picture above.

"Secret" Tunnel

After we hit the bottom of the tracks, we took a trail that lead us past the Shooting Range, which was the driving reason the city tried to close the Koko Crater hike back in 2008. They cited the potential danger from errant bullets hitting hikers, even though there have been no reported close calls. Luckily, the city changed their mind about the closure, for now. After getting back on the highway leading back to the Blowhole, we passed a scenic sign point and then hopped over the guardrail into a gully. The gully lead us into a tunnel that went under the highway, luckily we entered while it was still low tide, I’m not sure if the tunnel is submerged during high tide, nor did I want to find out.

Splash

We walked in the semi-dark tunnel for about 15-20 feet before emerging on the other side to be greeted by waves crashing onto the shoreline.

Fishing Shrine

The Honolulu Japanese Fishing Club put this lava boulder with a Buddhist guardian, Jizo, carved into the West face in 1939. Overlooking Bamboo Ridge and Halona Point, the shrine was to protect the fishermen. Since 2007, Vietnamese Buddhists began to take care of the shrine after they placed a statue of Quan Am Nam Hai, a Vietnamese goddess on the South side.

Halona Cove

Looking down into Halona Cove. This beach is famous for the iconic scene with Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in the movie “From Here to Eternity.”

Halona Blowhole

We approached the Blowhole from the beach side. Respectful of the ocean, we kept our distance from the natural lava rock spout that can shoot seawater up to 20 feet in the air. You can also see the white warning sign that marks where fishermen have drowned in the past. Back in 2002, a California tourist straddled the hole and got sucked in and died. His family filed a lawsuit against the State, claiming that not enough signs were posted to warn people about the dangerous conditions and also petitioned to have a metal grate installed over the hole. I’m sorry for his loss, but not for his lack of common sense. Why is that people can not just take accountability for themselves and their actions, and instead try to assign responsibility to others? The entire hike took around three hours and is relatively easy, it was a nice leisurely hike to start the New Year.